


the ones they left behind

by archival_hogwash



Category: World of Warcraft
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Minor Canonical Character(s), Mists of Pandaria, Original Character-centric, Original Female Character(s) - Freeform, Original Player Characters, POV Original Female Character, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-06
Updated: 2017-03-06
Packaged: 2018-09-29 19:41:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10142540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/archival_hogwash/pseuds/archival_hogwash
Summary: One year after the Alliance and the Horde lifted off from the Wandering Isle, taking many of the island's inhabitants with them, one Pandaren shaman reflects on how (or if) her life has changed.(WOW i gotta practice my summaries because GOOD GRIEF anywho the actual fic is less corny, pinky swear)





	

**Author's Note:**

> heavily edited from a WriteWorld prompt on tumblr, a million years ago:
> 
> Mission: Write a story, a description, a poem, a metaphor, a commentary, or a critique about this picture. Write something about this picture.

Haemin stared blankly at the browning leaf shards clinging to the bottom of her teacup. She picked up the chipped clay cup and swirled the jasmine tea in a slow circle, letting her eyes float out of focus and follow the cloud of tea leaf dust as it whirled through the remaining liquid in tandem with the lazy motion of her wrist. She sighed deeply, and let the smell of jasmine blossoms and pungent gunpowder pearls cloud her thoughts.

The last thing she needed on her mind was...frankly, anything. Least of all, memories.

In the year since her older sister and brother had left the Wandering Isle with the outsiders--two hot air balloons, one red, one blue, their matching banners snapping in the stiff breeze off the Great Sea--the descendants of Liu Lang were doing their level best to go on with their lives as if nothing had changed. Unfortunately, keeping up that charade proved to be a greater challenge once the sun set beneath the sea. Half the houses in Mandori Village still sat unoccupied, their cold, dust-blanketed hearths just barely visible through darkened doorways.

With half their fellow Pandaren gone, those who remained did everything they could to keep the darkness--within and without--at bay. Some, like Lao Ma Liang at the Golden Lantern, kept the brew and dumplings coming at all hours, to help distract desperate patrons from the ghosts they saw in every corner. Others, like her parents, turned back to their work with a vengeance; she fell asleep most nights to the dull thumps of blows landed and the sharp ringing of panting breaths, as they sparred deep into the night in the combat ring behind the garden wall.

Haemin pursed her lips in worry and absently sat up straighter on the cushioned bench, reflexively rolling her neck and shoulders to release the building tension. She’d never felt as close to the esteemed Tushui practitioners in her family, but it had never really bothered her; that sense of distance widened into a yawning gulf on the day that the pride and joy of her family had sauntered off to join the Alliance and the Horde in their endless short-sighted shadow war.

When Saeju left, she took her parents’ vitality with her. When Taejeon left, he took their hope with him.

_This…war of theirs isn’t even here, and it has made ghosts of my family… It has made ghosts of us all._

Haemin looked up from her cold tea and glanced around her. She watched Er and Shi fill the empty cups at the gambler’s table with another round of their latest fermented barley concoction. One table away, she heard another player raise the wager to a silver she knew he didn’t have. The blustering elders behind her kept up their playful ribbing, but the laughter in the air had an edge that she didn’t remember from the time before Shen-zin Su felt a thorn in his side.

Despite Haemin’s attempts to clear her mind, the niggling thought--the one that had plagued her night and day since her siblings left--grew louder and louder until it was all she could hear.  _Foolish child! Isn't it obvious? They made the right choice where you could not!_  

Maybe so. Maybe the ones who made that most difficult of choices were not the foolish ones after all. Maybe, as it happened, they made it out just in time, so that they didn’t have to watch…whatever this performance of “normal life” was supposed to be.

Maybe, without fully knowing, she (and everyone else on this turtle) had traded the chance to see the world for the duty of caring for the broken pieces of the ones they left behind.

Haemin scowled.

_Wherever you are, Saeju, Taejeon… I hope it was worth it._


End file.
